What Fire Dragons Treasure - Cristina Rayne Page 0,54
never thought the one thing she had been forced to hone from her miserable years married to Garrett that would turn out to be the most useful was her ability to put the most awful things out of her mind and function in public as though everything was rainbows and butterflies. Of course, faking that you were completely fine was a thousand times harder when you’re trying to hide the fact that you’re freaking out about something potentially life changing from a group of dragons with sensory abilities that might as well be super powers.
At least today, Amber had the perfect excuse to be anxious. As long as dragons couldn’t read minds—and so far, none of the dragons she knew had insinuated they could—she could pretend her latest lapse in common sense hadn’t happened until she was safely back in Elysia South.
Twenty-three years old and you’re still making these kinds of stupid, easily avoidable mistakes, she thought in disgust as she sat at the breakfast nook with Raphek, Airon, and Otaron and tried to at least eat a bit of toast and a strawberry or two.
At least Airon or Otaron hadn’t teased them once about last night. She knew damned well that they both had heard every moan from her mouth and rhythmic squeak of the bed. Yet they had greeted them this morning as though she hadn’t tried to scream the house down last night. Nor had they commented on the fact that they were currently holding hands under the table.
Draknos were so confusing.
“I recalled something last night while you were sleeping that I meant to ask you before we left the kingdom,” Raphek said as he plowed through his second helping of eggs.
“About?” Amber asked, wincing internally at the wariness that crept into her tone.
“When you spoke to that FBI agent over the phone, you told him that you had proof of Garrett’s violence towards Matty and you. Was that true or just a bluff?”
Some of her tension melted away. “It’s true. I have an audio file of the night that asshole beat both Matty and me bloody that I secretly recorded on my phone right under his nose. It automatically backed up to my cloud account. You can clearly hear Garrett raging and threatening to blacken my other eye while Matty is crying and screaming inconsolably, and I’m crying and screaming that he’s bleeding and begging that monster to let me take Matty to the hospital. I, of course, immediately made several copies and stored them on thumb drives in several different places.”
“Can they be easily retrieved?”
Amber couldn’t help the smug grin that stretched her lips. “Yes. One is back in the room you gave me. I had it in the front pocket of my jeans the day you brought us into Elysia South. It was in a little metal case for protection, so luckily, it didn’t get damaged when I took that bad tumble during the gunfight.”
“That’s great news,” Airon said. “It’s a powerful piece to play should things go south after today. Senator Johnson has been too quiet since the press conference. It makes my scales itch.”
Amber shoved her plate away, her appetite now completely gone. “What time is that rideshare supposed to pick me up at the diner?”
“Two hours from now,” Otaron answered. “Don’t worry. We still have plenty of time to get there.”
“I’m just ready for this whole day to be over.”
“As do I,” Raphek said, his hand tightening around hers. “I don’t like that you’ll be in that building alone with me so far away.”
“I hear you,” Airon said with a grimace that both Raphek and Otaron instantly mirrored.
Amber wondered what that was about, but she sure as hell wasn’t about to ask no matter how curious she was. She had a bad history of inadvertently stepping onto other people’s landmines. The last thing she needed was to start this day off with such a bad omen.
When Raphek pressed such a passionate kiss on her before they dropped her off at the edge of the parking lot of the diner, Amber was grateful for that last bit of warmth that only Raphek could give her. It permeated her body from her lips to the tips of her toes like a warm hug from within. With any luck, it would stay with her for hours, yet. She just wished that the kiss hadn’t felt as though he were saying goodbye as opposed to a goodbye.
She watched Otaron drive off with a huge knot